SMX Live: Google Places

Below is live coverage of the Google Places panel from the SMX West 2011 conference. This coverage is provided by Brian Ussery aka beussery.

Disclaimer: The coverage is brought to you in real time, using a custom live blogging tool. Feel free to ask questions or leave comments for inclusion into the live coverage. During the live event, live notes will auto-scroll with newest entries at top. After the session is complete the archive version will have the oldest entries at the top. We ask you to please excuse any typos, as these are live notes.

Finished
Auto-Refresh: Off

Stay tuned! Live updates will begin momentarily.

1:46:31 PMBrian Ussery:Up Close With Google Place Pages: Google dramatically expanded its collection of information about the real world with its introduction of Place Pagesâ€”a webpage for every place in the worldâ€”for businesses, points of interest, transit stations, neighborhoods, landmarks and cities. If you havenâ€™t yet claimed your place page youâ€™re missing out on a fantastic opportunity for controlling your own destiny and gaining valuable search traffic on Google Maps. Moderator: Chris Silver Smith, Director of Optimization Strategies, KeyRelevance Q&A Moderator: Benu Aggarwal, President, Milestone Internet Marketing

1:49:29 PMBrian Ussery:WELCOME, we'll be starting shortly! Just FYI, Barry has a new blog platform and I'm using Cr-48 and dev version of Chrome so please bear with any issues. :)

1:51:36 PMBrian Ussery:First a word from the sponsor: Universal Business Listing UBL...

1:52:11 PMBrian Ussery:searchmarketingexpo.com/ask to ask questions

1:56:19 PMBrian Ussery:Up frist is Gregg Stewart from 15miles

Gregg Starts off...

Consumers are growing more and more sophisticated when it comes to localized search. They not only shop online but use things like Google Places to locate stores. Gregg is showing a slide to illustrate how local has grown. Forward looking it is easy to see how important localized SERPs will be..

1:58:26 PMBrian Ussery:In October Google launched its new search results with Place search.

Affects on business - Google Place pages in organic serps - Local results precedence over "true organic" - Greater opportunity to acquire qualified traffic - Creates a one-stop-spot for consumers to find all the information

2:31:40 PMBrian Ussery:Holiday Inn South Carolina saw the largest decline but redesigned prior...

2:32:48 PMBrian Ussery:Conclusions: it depends! :)

- how were you doing before Place search - how relient are you on Google away from Places

2:33:26 PMBrian Ussery:Google has introduced rates in SERPs for these industries...

2:34:52 PMBrian Ussery:Rates and rate checking showing on Place pages as well. Inventory control issues come to light as not all rates come from site but rather booking engine. As a result supplier is coming out on the bad end of the stick, so to speak.